"We’re not saying it was perfect, we’re saying we’re listening, we want to improve. This is the first time this event was here downtown. We want to understand so we can do better next time," Colorado Spring's Deputy Chief of Staff Bret Waters said.

Thousands are excited to have racing back in our city. The Colorado Classic will bring in millions of dollars to our state, but the drivers 11 News talked with on and off camera said the traffic could've been handled better.

Thursday, 11 News reporter Alyssa Chin went into that traffic on purpose.

During the early evening, the intersection of Nevada and Colorado was pretty messy. Our crew watched maybe four to five drivers almost crash in just a 10-minute span.

During the afternoon, around 3, we wanted to see how long these traffic delays really were. In some stretches, the drive took almost three times longer than normal.

Chin drove from our 11 News studio located on Wahsatch and Colorado Ave in downtown, to 21st Street on Cimarron, and back. The round trip was nearly an hour long. The three mile, one-way route, usually takes about seven to eight minutes.

It took 22 minutes to get to 21st Street, and 27 minutes coming back on the eastbound side.

It's no wonder drivers were upset, agitated and annoyed.

"It's been a mess," Jeremy Mount said. "Still about 45 minutes away from home, which is only a couple miles away."

"It's ridiculous," Rosee Otey added.

A time-lapse video from the front of our station shows dozens of cars that had turned down our road hoping to beat the traffic. However, our street too was closed, and they forced to turn around and rejoin the crowd.

I don't even know how to get out of it. Like, there's nowhere to go," Otey said.

Springs police said 190 officers were out specifically for the race Thursday. Most of them dedicated to traffic.

The city had a hotline set up specifically for Thursday to get more information and formally log complaints.

Late Thursday night, we reached out to the city to see if they had an idea of how many calls they got. We’ll let you know what we find out.

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